Conflict Research Consortium ARTICLE SUMMARY

"The Ethics of Forgiveness"

Trudy Govier

This article summary written by: Mariya Yevsyukova, Conflict Research Consortium.

Govier explores the notion of forgiveness in the example of the attempts of
reconciliation between "victims and agents of Stasi spying in the former East
Germany" (p. 10). This reconciliation did not occur largely due to the unwillingness
of the Stasi agents to acknowledge their wrongdoings. The victims felt that their attempts
at reconciliation merely allowed Stasi agents to come up with moral excuses for their
deeds. A similar situation is described in the movie "Music Box", in which a
daughter cannot forgive her father for hiding [from her] the truth about his crimes in
war-time Hungary, and his unwillingness to recognize his wrongdoings. Thus for forgiveness
to happen there should be several elements present: the victim, the offender, and their
mutual "understanding that the offender has done something wrong" (p. 10).

But are there unforgivable crimes? For example, Jewish theologists believe that
Holocaust crimes cannot be forgiven. Nevertheless, before the Holocaust, the Jewish
religion stated that if a wrongdoer repents, he or she has to be forgiven.

The ethical question here is whether people should always forgive if an offender
acknowledges that he or she has done something wrong and repents. The philosophers Downie
and Hosburg suggest that people should be willing to forgive under such circumstances,
otherwise the wrongdoer would be forever isolated "from the moral community" (p.
10). Supporters of Victim-Offender reconciliation base their beliefs on the idea that
forgiveness is beneficial for both victims and offenders. It would be difficult to
maintain friendships for those who cannot forgive, since close relationships often provoke
conflicting situations where someone feels hurt. It is psychologically damaging for a
person to feel continuously victimized. In many conflicts the line between victim and
offender is not easily drawn; in order for reconciliation to happen, these conflicts
demand mutual repentance and forgiveness. In all cases, however, the act of forgiveness
requires the acknowledgment of wrongdoing and repentance.